


Anything It Takes

by Pline



Category: Leverage
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Demon Deals, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Supernatural Elements, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 21:23:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15737595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pline/pseuds/Pline
Summary: Eliot dies. Eliot is dead.And there is nothing they wouldn't do to get him back. Including making a deal with a literal demon.





	Anything It Takes

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my drafts for the longest time and I've finally found the inspiration to finish it! It didn't go where I expected it to go but I'm happy with it anyway.

Only one thoughts runs through Parker’s head, on and on and on and always coming back.

_Eliot is dead._

Eliot died.

Eliot’s gone.

She can’t stop thinking but it still doesn’t seem real to her. Eliot cannot die, he’s Eliot! He’s invincible!

And she knows Hardison needs her right now but she can’t be around anyone. Her world is crumbling down, she spent decades thinking she’d only be by herself and now she’d been lead to believe she’d always have her boys.

She feels stupid. She should have known better. That’s why she stopped feeling feelings for so long, so she couldn’t be hurt. But now she’s been loving again and she’s hurt and lost and Eliot. Is. Dead.

She stays unmoving, barely breathing, tucked in an air vent in Portland’s Bank Of America. With the walls around her, she tries to feel safe – it usually works, like her emotions would be contained in the small place. Eyes shut tight, she tries to calm her panic, her anger too, her grief.

Maybe if she thinks it real hard, Eliot will stop being dead when she feels ready to leave.

 

* * *

 

Eliot’s body is getting cold at the morgue. Parker’s AWOL.

And Hardison finds himself all alone back at their HQ. Nothing feels real, it’s all meaningless.

He had to call the police on Eliot’s body – Eliot’s dead body because Eliot is dead, died, is gone, not coming back – and he had to play the role of FBI Agent Thomas and act like he didn’t care about Eliot, like his death didn’t rip a hole in his heart, raw and painful, he had to hack his way into the morgue and create a backstory and an alias and he had to bury the investigation as deep as possible so that no would ever think about it again.

And he had to do all of it alone.

Parker – strong, unmovable Parker – was a mess and he – emotional, irrational Hardison – was the only one who could stay behind and manage the situation. It’s all very wrong and so many levels of fucked up.

Eliot was never supposed to die. Fuck, Parker and Hardison had barely started talking about their mutual feeling for the hitter and now he’s gone and fucking died.

Hardison’s eyes fall on Eliot’s unfinished coffee mug. Only this morning he had complained because they had to run off after their mark.

The world stops and it’s only him and that damn half-drunk mug. Eliot will never finish his coffee or drink another one or do anything else because Eliot is dead and his body is laying officially unclaimed in a morgue where he’s not even registered under his real name but under the alias Hardison created for this stupid damn con that got Eliot shot and bleeding out on the ground like an animal and Hardison is all alone now and he doesn’t know where Parker’s gone and Eliot is dead dead dead dead dead

“Fuck!”

The mug shatters loudly on the ground and Hardison falls to his knees, sobbing. Inhuman wailing escape his body, it wasn’t supposed to end this way. They were supposed to finally _be_ the three of them, without any reservation or limitation.

Eliot wasn’t supposed to die and Hardison wasn’t supposed to be the strong one to Parker’s crumbling down. Everything is upside down and he just wants it all to go back to their own weird normal.

He cuts his hand on a shard and he sharp pain stops him mid-sob. It hits him: he has to be strong for Parker, because she can’t be right now, and also for Eliot because he can’t be anymore.

Tears are still falling down his face but his resolve is firm. He will break down again – later, much later. For now, he has quite a lot to do.

The first thing he does is make a phone call.

“Sophie, something happened.”

 

* * *

 

Eliot’s body is burned.

Not incinerated. Burned. On a pyre.

It’s illegal in all kinds of ways but it’s not like they ever cared about legality, and more importantly, it’s what Eliot wanted.

They only tell a handful of people about the funeral but a lot more still come anyway to the hidden Oklahoma cabin. All of them strangers and strange in many ways.

Obviously, some are military or hitters: they carry themselves the way Eliot used to, head up high and always on their guard.

Others are harder read, not that Sophie is actively trying to. It’s just an old habit of hers that she can never just turn off.

Still, she’s surprised. Eliot never mentioned any of these people or explained why he wanted his body to be disposed of in such an unusual manner, but she guesses she shouldn’t be surprised. Eliot was always ever the secretive man.

She will miss him. She does deeply already. She wants to cry, mourn the close friend he has become over the years but she know now is not the time yet. Parker and Hardison are struggling to stay afloat and they need Sophie and Nate to remain calm and hide their own sorrow.

Sophie has never seen Parker so openly vulnerable, especially in front of people she doesn’t know nor trust, but she is shaken and hurting. She does not mourn the way people usually do, she doesn’t scream or bargain, but she holds herself like she’s breaking down and she’s barely holding the pieces together.

Hardison, on the other hand, is cold. He’s taken care of everything: their cover, the funeral, the priest, the casket, all of it. So much that he has barely slept in days.

But Sophie sees his trembling hand and the way his eyes water at times. He’s hurting the same way Parker is, he’s just trying to hide it from her.

Their whole dynamic is thrown by Eliot’s passing. The two always had a special bond with Eliot and Sophie knows it was only a matter of time before the three would figure out and accept their feelings and finally get together.

She regrets never saying anything to push things along a little bit. Now, they don’t have any more time and they will never know what it feels to be complete.

She may be a cynic but she’s always loved a good love story and she has no doubt these three’s was one for the ages.

She shudders. A few feet away from her, Eliot is still burning and it takes a lot from her not to burst out crying at the sight of her friend’s body wrapped up in white and burning on a pyre. She’s heard of such ceremonies, of the salting and burning of the body. She is not sure what it means but she isn’t sure either that she wants to find out.

 

* * *

 

Nate finds Parker and Hardison outside the cabin. They are not talking, or even touching, but he has known them long enough to know they both deal differently with emotions than most people, especially Parker.

“Can I?” Nate asks, making his voice voice softer.

“Yeah,” Hardison says. He doesn’t look like he has these past few days. Rather, he has let his shoulders hung low and his mouth fall and his eyes shine.

Nate doesn’t speak. There’s nothing he can say that would bring them comfort and empty words wouldn’t be welcomed. He sits close enough to Hardison that their shoulders are touching. The kid’s always needed physical contact for reassurance and Parker can’t give that to him, not right now at least.

Nate loves these two like family and he loved Eliot the same. All of them are hurting, but he knows his pain cannot be compared to theirs.

Soon enough, Sophie finds them and, without a word, she joins them and together – incomplete family – they sit and mourn the friend that they’ve lost, mourn what would never be.

“I talked to someone,” Parker says suddenly, as if she’d been readying herself to speak and finally found the words to do so.

The sun has set long ago, the only light comes from inside the cabin where a few people are still exchanging stories about Eliot and drinking in his honor.

“What did they say?” Hardison asks softly when she doesn’t add anything.

“He said: ‘you _can’t_ bring him back’.” She puts a heavy emphasis on the ‘can’t’.

Nate nods, not quite following her where she’s going which is not unusual with her.

“The way he said it, the way he looked at me when he said it.” She pauses, searching for her words, stumbling like she used to when they first knew her. “He said it not like we can’t, but like we _shouldn’t._ ”

“Parker… What are you saying?” Sophie asks.

“I’m saying, we’re gonna bring Eliot back.”

There’s a silence. Parker has her arms crossed and she’s holding her breath, waiting for their answer but still managing to be defiant.

Hardison has a tense look on his face but there’s some treacherous hope lurking in his eyes.

“Mama,” is all he can manage to say.

“I’m not crazy.”

“Of course not”, Nate answers right back. “But you can’t - ”

“We can. We will.” Parker is holding herself like she would in front of an enemy, daring them to disagree with her. Nate can read the plea too, she doesn’t want to be alone in whatever this is.

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Nate asks, hoping this will make her realize how impossible bringing someone back from the dead is.

“We should ask the guy who talked to Parker,” Hardison suggests and he moves closer to Parker.

“Sophie?” Nate turns to her, wishing for some support in this madness.

Her lips are tight. She’s pensive, and Nate suddenly notices how oddly silent she’s been. He can read her well enough by now to know that there’s something she knows that he doesn’t.

“What if she’s right, Nate?”

“You can’t be encouraging this?” Nate is a man of faith but that doesn’t mean he believes in fairy tales.

“Look, I’ve seen things I can’t explain. I’ve been around artifacts older than any of today’s countries and some of them felt – strange, for lack of a better world. Some of the people who came today? They’re not like us and you know it.”

Nate stays at her, trying to understand what she’s not saying. Sophie isn’t hiding anything right now, she’s not grifting, she’s not lying or manipulating. He knows she wouldn’t. Not to them, not like this and especially not now.

“Nate.” Parker says. “We’re doing it.”

“And I’m helping them.” Sophie adds, firm.

“Besides, what do we have to lose?” Hardison has the ghost of a smile on his lips.

Nate sighs.

“Alright.” They’re all gonna get their hearts broken once more but they need him and he needs them too. “Alright. Let’s bring Eliot back.”

 

* * *

 

They don’t have to look for very long before finding the man who talked to Parker.

He’s the last one still at the cabin, sitting on the couch and nursing a glass of bourbon. His skin is a pale white and his eyes a deep green, almost like grass. He’s dressed in all black and apart from a heavy golden ring on his left hand, there should be nothing special about him.

But there’s something about him that can’t be explained. Something wicked and mischievous.

“I was wondering if you’d get my meaning,” he says and he smiles. It doesn’t reach his eyes.

Parker steps up, Hardison right beside her.

“Who are you?” She demands. “What do you want?”

“Name’s Thomas and what I want is not that important. What _you_ want on the other hand.. Missing your dear Eliot, aren’t you?”

“I swear, if you have anything to do with his death,” Hardison threatens, venom coloring his words.

“Oh no, dear, I am simply seizing an opportunity that presented itself to me. Tell me, what would you say if I brought you your favorite hitter back?”

“Out of the goodness of your heart?” Hardison scoffs.

“Everything comes with a price,” Thomas says and he shrugs, as if barely interested in the conversation.

Rather, he takes another sip of his drink, bored almost.

“Who are you?” Nate can’t help but ask when it’s clear the man won’t say anything more.

“No,” Sophie speaks up. “ _What_ are you?’

The man if man he was, laughs.

He blinks and his eyes turn pitch black.

“I’m a demon, sweetheart.”

Another blink and his eyes are back to their bright green, but they’ve seen it and they haven’t dreamed it. There was no tricks, they know them all, there was absolutely no tricks.

The air hangs heavy around them as they take in the revelation. This is nothing they know how to handle.

Parker is the first to get back on her feet, as always. She accepts this new piece of information and tucks it in her brain, she’ll think on it later. For now, she has Eliot to bring back from the dead.

“So? What do you want?” She’s getting impatient. “A soul? Take mine, I don’t need it.”

“No, Parker,” Sophie says and she takes a step towards her. “You definitely that.”

“Oh, I like the lot of you,” the demon says, delighted. “Now, I’m just asking for a little favor, nothing extravagant. You see, something has been taken from me and I want it back. I would send my men but they can’t get into the place. You can.”

“You just want us to steal something for you? And you’ll bring Eliot back?”

Parkers sounds about ready to jump into a car and drive to wherever this something is and deal with the whole thing right away.

“Why do you need us especially?” Nate asks. Only the team could perceive the wavering of his voice. This is a lot for him to take in, his entire perception of the world has changed.

“You’re the best at what you do.”

Parker and Hardison share a determined look. Their decision is already made: whatever it takes if it can bring Eliot back.

 

* * *

 

Getting in and out is not so easy.

The mansion is hard to get to, they have to hike through deep Alaskan forest to get there without alerting anyone. Thomas’ mysterious artifact is hidden in an uncrackable safe, protected by a unhackable system and five rough-looking higly-armed guards that keep patrolling at random, making their rounds unpredictable.

In any other cases, they would have enjoyed the challenge.

They do manage to get in unseen, of course. It takes Parker and Hardison thirty-seven minutes to get in and out with what turns out to be a clay tablet with writings like they have never seen before.

Throughout the house there were also strange symbols painted in red that Hardison isn’t so sure is not actually blood. He doesn’t want to find out.

They find Nate and Sophie outside who stood ready to grift them out of the situation if it ever went south.

They have barely started the hike back when Thomas appears out of thin air beyond them.

“Hell no!” Hardison screams both out of fear and anger. “Why didn’t you do that to get your tablet back?”

Thomas waves his hand like one would wave a fly, “I wouldn’t have gotten in. Now. My tablet if you please.”

“Bring Eliot back first.”

“I will. As soon as you give me the tablet.”

“Bring. Eliot. Back.”

“Listen, I’m getting really tired of this,” Thomas says and his voice is low, too low to be human. “There are only two ways this is going: you give me the tablet right now and honor your part of the deal and I bring Eliot back. Or - you don’t give me the tablet right now and I kill you to get it and so won’t have to bring Eliot back. Have I made myself clear?”

Parker’s grip tightens against her taser. She’s never been the patient type and this is too much. Eliot is dead and he can be brought back, she won’t risk losing their only chance at seeing him alive again by giving the tablet to an actual demon. Yet, if the past years have taught her anything, it’s that you can’t always have the upper hand.

“How do you know we can trust you?” Sophie asks.

“You can’t. Actually, you shouldn’t trust me. After all I’m a demon.” Thomas smiles and in that instant he looks like Hardison pictured demons to look like. Dark and vile, lips turned into an inhuman grimace.

Parker looks at Hardison. Wordlessly, they come to a decision. They have no leverage. They don’t have a choice.

Parker gives the tablet. Thomas takes it with a cloth, not directly touching it with his hands.

“Three days and three nights,” Thomas says once he has put the tablet inside his jacket. “You’ll get him back at midnight in three days and three nights.”

“Why so long?” Parker asks, clearly upset she has to wait any longer than she already has.

“Angel, you’ve burned his body. He’ll have to be entirely remade. But you’ll have him back, on that you have my word. Go home.”

He’s gone again before they can protest.

 

* * *

 

 

Time runs slowly while they wait. They feel each passing moment with ever-growing doubt and apprehension.

What if Eliot never comes back? What if they hoped for nothing? Or worse, what if he comes back different?

Back at their HQ, Hardison spends his time doing research on demons and clay tablets on his computer. He is torn between his desire to get Eliot back at whatever price and his guilt at maybe having gifted a literal demon with something that should have been kept hidden.

So he keeps on searching. He needs answers, he needs something to do to keep him grounded. He can’t stop, won’t stop, because otherwise he’ll have thoughts. Bad thoughts. He catches a couple of hours of restless sleep.

Parker keeps getting in and out of the flat. She doesn’t speak, she just comes in to check on them in her own way and then leaves again. It’s okay though, Hardison knows she’s not far, ready to swing in at the first sign of Eliot.

Sophie and Nate are a quiet presence in the flat. It’s not really theirs anymore but they belong here too. Both of them respect Hardison and Parker’s boundaries but they push them too so they eat, or sleep, or only just stop for a minute and breathe.

 

* * *

 

At exactly midnight, three days and three nights after the break-in, there is a knock on the door.

The sound is deafening.

The four of them, who have been sitting still for the past two hours, tense. They’re barely breathing, entirely unmoving. What do they do? There is something they haven’t talked about but it’s been in all of their minds: what if the man that comes back is not their Eliot?

Another knock, louder this time. It goes _thud thud thud – thud._ It’s Eliot’s secret knock.

Hardison, feeling both dread and incredible hope, turns to his computer where the camera is being broadcast.

“It’s him,” Hardison breathes out.

Despite none of the alarm going off, despite there being no feed before now, there stands Eliot Spencer. Alive.

“Open the door, or I swear I’m kicking it open,” Eliot’s voice comes from outside.

That’s what makes them react. Parker bolts for the door and yanks it open before Hardison can catch up to her. She jumps into Eliot’s arms without any hesitation.

Eliot looks the same. He isn’t dirty or roughed up. He’s even wearing the same clothes he was shot in except that they’re not covered in blood anymore.

“You okay?”

Hardison’s eyes snap up to Eliot’s face and any concern he had about this not being their Eliot simply vanish. Only Eliot could manage to ask about his friend’s wellbeing after literally coming back from the great beyond while still trying to maintain his gruff facade that’s fooling exactly no one.

“Am I okay? Man, are you for real?”

Hardison throws his arms in the air before too hugging Eliot for dear life. Parker is not letting go and just catches Hardison’s hand over Eliot and holds both her boys tight.

Hardison breaks down then, surrounded by the people he loves the most, finally complete again. He sobs, loudly, withholding no cry and no whimper, and he can feel himself shaking but can’t bring himself to care because Parker’s grip never wavers and Eliot keeps murmuring soft words to him and to her and for the three of them.

 

* * *

 

Much later, once they have managed to move to the couch, still untangled, Eliot lets his head rest against Hardison’s shoulder and Parker rests her head on Eliot’s shoulder.

“How are you feeling?” Sophie asks gently.

“I could use some shuteye.”

“We’re gonna go, now,” Nate says with a small yet sincere smile. “I didn’t – I wasn’t sure – ”

“What Nate is trying to say,” Sophie cuts in, “is that we are so glad to have you back.”

Eliot nods. His friends can read the exhaustion on his open face, as well as something else, something somber like he’d seen too much.

“We’ll be back later. Rest you three.”

And with that, the two are gone.

The silence that settles between them is drastically different from earlier when they were still waiting. It’s comfortable and yet, still powerful and meaningful.

They take strength in each other’s presence. Being separated for what they thought would be forever, is just too much.

“I went to hell,” Eliot says out of the sudden.

Parker holds Eliot tighter without saying anything, she buries her face in the crook of his neck.

“It’s okay,” Hardison whispers. “You’re here now.”

“But I’ll go back. I’ll go back next time I die and this time it’ll be for good. Doesn’t that bother you, that I’m destined for eternal damnation? Because of my sins?”

“You don’t deserve it,” Parker says looking him in the eyes, her voice like steel. “We won’t let you go back there.”

Eliot sighs, “Darling, you can’t keep me from dying forever.”

“Watch us,” Hardison says. “I don’t know what’s after death, and you don’t have to tell us about it now or ever, but wherever you go, we go too.”

Eliot goes to protest but Parker shushes him.

“Eliot, Hardison is right. If you can’t help you from going down there, we’re going down there with you.”

Eliot’s eyes shine with emotions. He looks at both of them and smiles and it’s such a soft loving smile despite the intensity of his stare.

“What did I ever do to deserve you two?"

“I don’t know but you got very lucky, my man,” Hardison jokes but it’s sincere. “We all did.”

“I never want to be separated from you,” Parker announces. She doesn’t cry, she doesn’t have to any more, her boys are back to her. But the memory of the pain as she thought Eliot was gone, she never wants to live through that again. She can’t lose him or Hardison.

Hardison puts his hand on her cheek and she closes in for a short tender kiss on the lips. She turns slightly to look at Eliot whose face has never looked this open and loving and _yearning_.

She leans in and kisses Eliot on the lips too.

It’s just a peck, it lasts but a few seconds, but it’s enough for now. It’s enough to share without words what they’ve always known.

Hardison kisses him too and it’s just as short and just as sweet.

“I think we should sleep now,” Parker says.

“Yeah, we’ll talk more tomorrow.”

“We can’t stay on the couch, it’s too small.”

“The bed is big enough for the three of us.”

Eliot stares at Parker but it’s both of them he asks, “Are you sure?”

And they know he’s not just talking about the bed. Are you sure, he asks and he means it all.

“We are.”

“Never been more sure of anything.”

It’s just what Eliot needed to hear because his shoulders drop and he’s exhausted and he’s got memories that’ll haunt him forever but he can only chuckle.

“Okay then, if you’re both sure.”

“Are you?”

“Of course.”

That night they sleep in the same bed. And the night after that and the night after that and all the nights after that.

And even if they don’t say it the way other people do, they know they love each other, they know they have each other.

It’s enough. It’s more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> First time I ever wrote for this fandom! I hope you enjoyed this because I had a whole lotta fun writing it.
> 
> Please consider leaving a comment, it only takes a minute and it makes my day!
> 
> Thank you for reading and see you soon maybe because I sure will write for this show again!


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